Rune Seeker

Chapter 89: Hunger

Dynamic Quest Complete

Secure the two seals.

Seals acquired (2/2)

Seal the Urn of Ur’Thul.

Urns sealed (1/1)

Bonus Objective: Defeat Ur’Thul the Undying

Ur’Thul Defeated (1/1)

Congratulations! Achievement unlocked – Scratch that Lich

You have sealed the Urn, defeated the lich, and ended a millennia-old curse (that you may or may not have helped cause).

Bonus Reward

Congratulations. Achievement unlocked – Evolution Party

You bathed in the energy of two simultaneous evolutions.

Please access a Dungeon Interface to unlock class-specific reward.

As soon as Hiral closed the window, not even really bothering to read it, another popped up.

Congratulations. Achievement Unlocked – On to the Next Challenge (2)!

You have cleared all three dungeons in this zone. Congratulations!

Please access a Dungeon Interface to unlock class-specific reward.

Hiral also closed that one without reading it as he looked towards where Ur’Thul had been.

The hammer in Nivian’s hand uncoiled and vanished above the crater he’d left in the floor and wall, and the tank stood looking over his gruesome work.

“Nivian?” Seena asked, pushing herself to her feet and taking a step forward. “You okay? We should…”

Nivian’s head snapped around as he snarled at her, flame-blue eyes flaring, and Seena stopped cold in her tracks.

Would they have to fight another one of their friends?

“Don’t be like that, Nivian,” Wule said softly, approaching his brother. “They’re just worried about you. Go on, do what you need to.” He then pointed at the crater.

Nivian’s mouth clenched like he was fighting internally against something as he turned and leaned down above what little remained of Ur’Thul. Holding his now empty hand out, blue light extended from his palm, and similar wisps of light rose out of the shattered body.

Two, five, ten small balls of fire rose and bobbed in the air until Nivian opened his mouth unnaturally wide. Then, in one quick breath, he swallowed all of it. Only when that was done did he stand a little straighter, his face a little more at ease.

He glanced over at Seena, a strange mix of sorrow and… something else… in his expression, and then he turned and stalked towards the center of the room. Nivian didn’t go far before he knelt in front of one of the withered corpses Yanily had killed. Another glow from his hand, more balls of fire, and he swallowed them again before moving on to the next corpse.

“Just give him some space,” Wule said to Seena, but it was Hiral he came over to stand in front of. “You look like you exploded.”

“Feel like it too,” Hiral said, every single part of him hurting, though the pain had lessened after being bathed in the glow of Wule’s class evolution.

“What happened to Nivian?” Seena asked, coming to join them with one arm over Left’s shoulders. Right likewise brough Seeyela over, but it was Li’l Ur who spoke up.

“Your friend has become one of the undead. An advanced one. The minutes after the transformation are the most difficult, when the hunger is the strongest. You’re lucky there is so much for him to feast on here, or he may not have been able to stop himself from attacking you.”

“He wouldn’t do that,” Seeyela said.

“Maybe not,” Li’l Ur said with a shrug. “It’s good you didn’t have to find out, though.”

Hiral looked at the crater where Ur’Thul had been. Very good we didn’t have to find out.

“Will he… get better?” Seena asked.

“There may be enough energy here to dull the hunger for a time, but he is undead now. There is no going back from that. He will always hunger. For eternity. Or until something stronger kills him again.”

Nobody said anything immediately, each of them watching the tank go from withered corpse to withered corpse, sucking up the small balls of blue flame before moving on. In their Party Interface, his health bar had turned blue compared to their red, and the undead tag sat beside his name.

Actually, as Hiral looked at the Party Interface, he noticed something else odd—Wule didn’t have a solar energy bar. When he looked up at the healer, the man’s lips quirked.

“You noticed, huh?” Wule asked.

“Noticed what?” Seena asked, looking at the healer. Then her eyes glazed over. “Your solar energy? What happened to it?”

“Don’t have any anymore,” Wule said. “None. Zero.”

Hiral looked at the red lanterns floating at Wule’s shoulders, and something Li’l Ur had said earlier clicked into place. “You used your lifeforce to keep us alive.”

“I did, and let me tell you, it hurt,” Wule said. He spun on Seeyela and pointed at her. “Especially you. Just what were you doing in there? Drinking poison? Bathing in it?”

Seeyela had taken her helmet off to watch Nivian, and her face fell at the accusation. At the thought she’d done something to hurt her friend.

“I’m kidding,” Wule said softly. “If you three hadn’t done what you did, Nivian would’ve died.” He looked from the party to his brother, then back again, and gave a sad chuckle. “Well, would’ve died… worse? I wouldn’t have been able to keep him alive long. Thank you for jumping in like that.”

“What do you do now?” Seena asked. “Can you still use abilities?”

“Oh, yeah,” Wule said. “Just costs health instead of solar energy now. No, don’t give me that look. It’s not as bad as it sounds. My solar energy got added to my health pool, so I’ve got a lot more lifeforce than I did before. And I still get replenished from solar energy and Cycling. It basically heals me.”

“Sounds kind of OP,” Yanily said, but even his usual comment was subdued, and his eyes followed Nivian the whole time. “What… what happens now?”

“What do you mean?” Seena asked. “We clear this dungeon, go to the Asylum as planned, then get back up to Fallen Reach.”

“Sure,” Yanily said, but he didn’t turn away from Nivian.

“Speaking of clearing it, Odi, you still alive over there?” Hiral asked, looking towards the throne.

What remained of the Lizardman lifted its head to look at the party. “Kind of,” Odi said, the bones of his skull flaking and rotted. “That much death energy was… unpleasant.”

Hiral pushed himself to his feet. “Did we really do it? Seal the Urn for good?” Warm energy pulsed through him as Wule used a healing ability on the whole party.

“Wule, you don’t have to,” Seena said.

“Yes, I do,” Wule said. “This doesn’t change anything. I’m still the party’s healer.”

Hiral nodded at the healer in thanks, glanced back at Nivian still feasting on the undead spirits—dealing with what that meant was too much right now—and then walked over to kneel in front of Odi. “Did we?”

“We did,” Odi said. “I can’t feel anything from the Urn anymore. The seal is even stronger than when it was bound within the Forge. The curse is ended. My people will be free.”

“Don’t you mean our people?” Hiral asked.

Odi shook his head. “Maybe it’s because true death is so close, but you don’t look as you did before. Like you took off a mask. Humans. Who would’ve guessed?”

“Pretty sure we told you that the first time we met you,” Yanily said, a softness in his voice. They’d all been through a lot with the strange Lizardman.

“Did you?” Odi asked, his voice weakening as he went on. “My memory must be going in my old age. I… I don’t understand how you’ve lived so long, but I’m grateful you did.”

“Is there anything we can do, Odi?” Hiral asked, forcing his voice not to catch.

“There is one thing,” Odi said. “Call your friend over.”

“Nivian?” Seena asked.

“Please, I don’t have long left,” Odi said, the teeth in his mouth falling out with every word he spoke.

“I’ll get him,” Wule said. “Hold on, Odi.” Then the healer was gone, jogging over to his brother.

Instead of making Odi talk more, Hiral turned his attention to the Urn. He couldn’t use any of his runes or abilities to make sure Odi was right, so he inspected the crystal instead. Actually, now that he looked at it so closely, it reminded him of something Left had said back in The Buried City.

“Left, you said you saw a monkey in crystal back in that city dungeon,” Hiral said. “Did it look like this?”

Left made sure Seena was okay on her own, then stepped over to join Hiral, inspecting the crystal. “Yes, I think it’s the same thing. The monkey must have been a test of the seal.”

“Which means the Fallen are in crystals like this, then?” Hiral asked.

“It would suggest that,” Left said.

“Huh,” Hiral said, mulling over what that could mean.

“You used Terminal?” Left asked quietly. “I see the System Shock debuff.”

“Needed it inside that circle,” Hiral said. “Glad the debuff didn’t cancel you and Right.”

“It says no class abilities can be used, not that it cancels active ones,” Left pointed out.

“Still,” Hiral said.

“Still,” Left agreed.

With that, Wule returned to the group with Nivian at his side. The tank didn’t immediately come closer to the party, and his brother cleared a space for him to approach Odi. When Nivian finally had a clear line to the Lizardman, he walked over and knelt down.

“The hunger is… difficult, isn’t it?” Odi asked, his voice sounding more and more distant with every word.

Nivian nodded.

“If you consume enough death energy and evolve twice—twice is very important—you may be able to suppress it,” Odi said. “All of my research suggests it. If you do that, you can live… almost… normally again.”

“Really?” Nivian asked.

“Yes,” Odi said, his whole bottom jaw falling off and turning to ash when it hit the ground. Somehow, he could still talk. “Take my energy so you can live.”

“Whoa, you want him to eat you?” Yanily asked.

Odi’s gaze stayed locked with Nivian’s, but the Lizardman nodded.

“You’re sure?” Nivian asked.

“Please,” Odi said.

Nivian nodded and lifted his right hand, palm glowing blue, and a sense of relief seemed to pass over Odi’s shoulders.

Nobody spoke—nobody could—as the light from Odi’s eyes faded, and a thick ball of flame bobbed out from the bottom of his skull to hang in front of Nivian. The tank looked once more at the empty shell leaning against the wall, then breathed in, swallowing the blue flame in one gulp.